Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Heights Guitars has been there since the dawn of time, but has recently been taken on by new owners, so they're making some positive changes and throwing a great grand opening party this Saturday!

I know it seems like this poster is for an event in direct competition with Genghis Con at The Beachland Ballroom, but I beg to differ. I think this exemplifies the amount of awesome stuff going on in Cleveland, the East Side, even. You can easily go to BOTH of these events, and get some of that crazy holiday gift shopping nailed down in one afternoon.

I initially had no clue what to draw for this poster. I was at a loss. I knew where the store is located, had driven past a million times, but never been in. I was pretty familiar with some of the bandssome of the employees are in, but again... that's not really information that should play directly into the approach for the store. If anything, it's a great thing to keep peripherally in mind.

In the end, I opted to represent a traditional/psychedelic Robert Johnson, electrified deep in a colorized splatterfield with zip-a-tone. It's a slight departure for me, but that's something I'm more interested in doing than repeating myself at all. I actually really like how this played out. Tradition + New.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

So, I've made no secret of my unyielding affection for the depths of awesome that is the thing called HellBoy. Part of that love has manifested itself in the form of postcards that I occasionally send to the publisher, which the comments scrawled on them have occasionally found their way into the letters column of the comics (here & here). Beasts of Burden is another comic that Dark Horse publishes that I have been pretty enamored with since day one. After the first issue I fired off a Lucky Sunshine postcard to tell them so. Then I forgot about it.

The other day I was reading the Hellboy/Beasts of Burden crossover, and got to the end and turned to the letters column, and BAM. There was MY FACE:

Holy Smokes, a mention of Blue Arrow Records, and my dude Lucky Sunshine's story, in the back of one of the best comics ever.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Freestyle Hip Hop + Battle Nite Vol. 2 at Now That's Class, THIS WEDNESDAY. Had to bang this out right quick. Wanted to get colorific but... no time. I will probably go to this, if for any other reason than to eat some vegan gangsta food.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Bonkers avant-jazz show at Now That's Class. I couldn't find much of anything on Ballister online, but here's Fred Longberg-Holm, Dave Rempis, and here's Paal Nilssen-Love. I'm a little bit out of my depth, kind of unfamiliar with this genre, but all universal omens point to this being a ridiculously amazing show. The Alex Henry/Nate Scheible Duo is something you probably don't want to miss.

Here's the really rough ruff. This shit has been brutalized, but I just scanned it anyway. Ganesha influence, replaced lotus with the goat, other things with other things. Here is way we meet each other half way.

Friday, November 05, 2010

There's a scant two weeks left to get yourself to a Melt location and grip what I think is quite possibly be the greatest sandwich to grace the gap between two thick slices of fresh baked bread ever. Give thanks, goddammit, for the NEW BOMB TURKEY:

I think the Mom's Sage Stuffing, coupled with the cranberry dippy, really kicks this sandwich into the realm of the ridiculous. It's really good. Also, there's a particularly awesome Vegetarian/Vegan version available with great homemade (All Hail) Seitan! That's the version I had, and I'm definitely planning on having it again before the end of November.

Squeezing my mind grapes to juice out some good ideas for this poster. I definitely didn't want to do a repeat of last year's homage to the New Bomb Turks. I really wanted to run wild with ideas about bombs, and turkeys. I could see a turkey flying a bomber jet dropping sandwich/bombs all over Cleveland. I was going to hope the fact that a turkey, which doesn't fly but is piloting a plane, would be enough to not directly equate the turkeys dropping sandwich/bombs to turkeys straight-up pooping on the city in the esteemed eyes of the poster viewer. I also thought of drawing a cartoonish old-timey bomb and adding obviously crafty legs and feathers to it. Sort of like when elementary pups add construction paper tail feathers and head, tooth pick legs, and a healthy dose of imagination to an everyday apple to create a tiny turkey. This path of thought would lead to obviously sketchy, possibly offensive, territory.

Turkeys playing football is a thing that's just about as much fun as you can have drawing a thing. Taking it to the next level and making one of the teams The Browns and one The Steelers was fun, but making the QB Number 19... that's just... Clevelandish. I have no idea who the other birds are, or if there even are players with those numbers from that time and place. Late 80s, Brownstown.

Speaking of Apples, I split the Apple Crisp Bread Pudding with a very special lady the other day, and it was bonkers delicious. Bonkers Delicious.